It was day
3 and we were excited to explore the next part of NYC – Greenwich Village, East
Village, Lower East Side and Chelsea. However, the first thing on
our agenda for the day was a boat tour, which was starting just a short walk
from our hotel at the 42nd Street pier.

There are
loads of boat tours on offer in NYC, but we decided to go for the Circle Line tour, which was offered as
part of the Explorer Pass, meaning
that we got 25% discount off the normal price. We arrived about one hour before
departure, which wasn’t such a bad idea as the queue was already building and
by the time we were ready for boarding, there was a very long queue behind us.
We boarded the boat and got seats on the open deck up the top. It was quite
windy but that didn’t deter us as we wanted to have a great view of all the
sights along the way. The tour left and made its way south down the Hudson and
around the bottom of the island, under Brooklyn bridge and up as far as 30th
street. We saw many of the famous sights of NYC, such as the WTC, Statue of
Liberty, Governors Island, Wall Street and Brooklyn Bridge – but from a
different perspective and viewpoint. This tour was guided, and the guide did a
fantastic job of telling us about the sights and history, as well as some
stories and interesting facts. After 1 ½ hours we were back at the Pier and
were more than satisfied with this experience – we’d definitely recommend it.

After this,
we decided to take the metro to our next stop, East Village, as we’d passed a lot of time with the tour. We got
out at 2nd Avenue station and made our way to St. Marks Place, an area famous for its second hand boutiques -
well that’s at least what we’d read in the guide. But actually, we didn’t find
too much there, so we decided to continue to our next destination, Old Merchants House, which is one of
only 2,400 listed historic houses. The house was built in 1832 and the interior
is a tribute to the period, virtually unchanged from its original state.

From Old
Merchants house, we made our way to Washington
Square Park, located at the south most point of 5th Avenue. Washington Square Park is amongst all the
buildings of NYU and is largely known for the Washington Square Arch, a triumph
arch located on 5th Avenue. This style of architecture is unusual
for New York, and it looks more like something you’d see from the Roman Empire
in Europe, however this unusualness makes it even more spectacular.

As we were
now standing next to 5th Avenue, we
decided to take a walk along this famous street. Just like in the movies, the
buildings have these large awnings covering the entrances on the street – you
almost feel like a character in Pretty Woman! After we’d had a walk up and back
down, we moved on to the next stop, Christopher
Street, which took us further towards the west side of Manhattan.

Christopher Street is famous for its gay scene and the annual Gay
Pride parade that takes place here. The areas is really beautiful, with lovely
houses and small shops. The area has a village like character to it, which is
really welcoming and relaxed. As we walked someway along the street, we
suddenly spotted something that we never imaged we’d see… Across the road, we
saw something moving in the shop window and we couldn’t believe our luck! They
were French bulldog puppies, our favourite breed of dog, and they can only have
been 6 weeks old. They were so tiny, cute and clumsy and we spent at least 20
minutes at the shop window admiring them. We found it hard to pull ourselves
away from the beauties! We walked further along the street, and were again
surprised to see another pet shop with more cute puppies, so in total we spent
one hour of our day just looking at Frenchies and a couple of dachshunds.

After we’d
got over the cuteness, we walked further north towards the area of Chelsea. On the way we passed through
the residential area of Greenwich
Village, which is very well known. Chelsea and Greenwich Village are considered
the most European areas of NYC and have a very metropolitan feeling. We made
our way up 9th Avenue towards Chelsea
Market. Chelsea Market is famous for its diverse food scene and when you
enter the place, you really are spoilt for choice. The market just covers the
ground floor, but the area is extremely big and it’s not just restaurants, but
also small market stores. Altogether, there are 55 outlets inside the market,
offering almost everything you can imagine, at all price levels. Chelsea Market
is our secret tip for day 3, and we’d advise you to keep your hunger locked up
until you get here – there’s definitely something for everyone and you could
also do a small gourmet tour, stopping at 3 or 4 places.

So, with
full stomachs and well exercised legs, another day came to the end and we made
the short walk back to the hotel. Watch out for the 4th instalment
coming soon!